Opinion
December 18, 1951. Rehearing Denied January 17, 1952.
Appeal from the Circuit Court, Franklin County, W. May Walker, J.
Wm. J. Oven, B.A. Meginniss of Meginniss, Thompson Morrison, Tallahassee, for appellant.
McLeod McLeod, Apalachicola, for appellee.
The above cases were by this Court consolidated for hearing and the two were so briefed and orally argued by counsel for the respective parties. It is not disputed that C.C. Land and J.A. Shuler and A.S. Mitchell owned cut-over, wild and unimproved described lands situated in Franklin County, Florida, subject to taxation for the year 1950, or that the appellant F.A. Hoffman was Tax Assessor, or O.C. Melvin was Tax Collector of Franklin County during the taxable year. The Board of County Commissioners were H.L. Cook, Chairman, W.F. Randolph, J.G. Bruce, G.W. Segree and George L. Wing. The taproot of the whole controversy is the correct valuation of the described property during the year 1950 for taxation purposes. The appellant Tax Assessor placed the valuation at a certain figure, while the Board of County Commissioners, sitting as a Board of Equalizers, held that a lesser amount should prevail.
The Tax Assessor of Franklin County, Florida, for the year 1950 determined and fixed the valuations of the 6,912 acres of wild and unimproved lands owned by C.C. Land and J.A. Shuler situated in Franklin County, Florida, for assessment of taxes at the total sum of $33,369.00. The owners paid for the same lands during the year 1949 the total sum of $42,500, and the proposed assessment by the Assessor in the total sum of $33,500 was a sum not in excess of the full cash value. The Board of County Commissioners of Franklin County, sitting as a Board of Equalization, was requested to approve and confirm the proposed assessment of the Tax Assessor on the Land-Shuler land as described in the transcript at the sum of $33,369.
The Tax Assessor of Franklin County, for the year 1950, determined and fixed the valuation of the 160,814 acres of wild and unimproved lands owned by A.S. Mitchell situated in Franklin County for assessment of taxes at the total sum of $481,977, and the proposed assessment was not in excess of the full cash value thereof. The Board of County Commissioners of Franklin County, in July, 1950, sitting as a Board of Equalizers, was requested to approve and confirm the proposed assessment as made by the Tax Assessor on the described lands of A.S. Mitchell for the year 1950 at the sum of $481,977.
The Board of County Commissioners and the Tax Assessor of Franklin County, in July, 1950, sat as an Equalization Board, pursuant to law, and heard and considered complaints on the question of the valuations of property as submitted by the Tax Assessor for taxation purposes for the year 1950. The land owners, parties to this litigation, appeared in person or by counsel and protested the valuations as being excessive as placed on lands for taxation purposes owned by each of them for the year 1950, as proposed by the Tax Assessor. It was the contention of the Tax Assessor that each of the complaints was without merit and the valuations placed on the properties by him were their full cash value, as provided for in Section 193.06, F.S.A.
The record reflects other and subsequent meetings of the Board of County Commissioners, sitting as an Equalization Board, at which the valuation of property as proposed by the Tax Assessor were studied and carefully considered. Different members of the Board visited some of the property in question in different sections of the county in their common effort to arrive at a correct valuation for taxation purposes. The Board obtained and accepted the services of an individual well informed as to the values of this class of property situated in Franklin County then being considered. On September 11, 1950, the Equalization Board entered its order, thereby reducing the assessments for taxation purposes on the cut-over lands owned by Land and Shuler situated in Franklin County from the sum of $33,369, as proposed by the Tax Assessor, to the sum of $27,736. Likewise entered a similar order which reduced the proposed assessments of the Tax Assessor on lands owned by A.S. Mitchell from $481,977 to the sum of $286,195. The Tax Assessor pointed out that A.S. Mitchell paid for these lands the sum of $646,814.
Section 193.27, F.S.A., provides that the Board of County Commissioners may equalize the assessment of the real estate or personal property in their respective counties, and for that purpose may raise or lower the value fixed by the County Tax Assessor of taxes on any particular piece of real estate, or item or items of personal property, etc. On September 11, 1950, the Board of County Commissioners certified to the Honorable F.A. Hoffman, Tax Assessor, the aforesaid changes in valuations of property owned by A.S. Mitchell and C.C. Land and J.A. Shuler situated in Franklin County, Florida, with the request that the valuations as fixed by the Equalization Board be extended on the tax roll by the Tax Assessor.
On or about October 15, 1950, the Honorable Fred A. Hoffman, Tax Assessor, addressed the Board of County Commissioners of Franklin County a letter about a reduction of the assessment substantially viz.:
"Gentlemen:
"The undersigned Tax Assessor Franklin County, Florida, respectfully declines, until compelled by court order, to calculate and carry out the total amount of county taxes, and the total amount of School District and other special taxes, on the tax assessment roll of Franklin County, Florida, as purportedly `reviewed and equalized' by the Board of County Commissioners of Franklin County, Florida, for the year 1950.
"In support of this position I submit:
"1. The County Commissioners have attempted to reassess the whole county rather than to review and equalize the assessments submitted by the Tax Assessor.
"2. The County Commissioners have reduced the assessments proposed by the Tax Assessor against several of the principal land owners, to-wit Messrs. A.S. Mitchell, Jay A. Shuler and C.C. Land, and St. Joseph Land and Development Company to a figure representing a portion of their fair market value far less than the portion of the fair market value at which most other lands in the County have been assessed.
"3. The reductions accorded to Messrs. Mitchell, Shuler and Land, and St. Joseph Land and Development Company as aforesaid are so arbitrary and unreasonable as to nullify any fairness or accuracy in the entire tax roll.
"4. In granting such reductions the Board of County Commissioners has acted under such influence and pressure that I do not consider the results ultimately reached legal or binding upon me in any way. I refer specifically to the fact that the assessments submitted by the Tax Assessor against the lands of Mr. Mitchell amounting in all to $431,435.00 covering 161,520 acres or approximately 46.7 per cent of the wild lands in the County, and have been reduced by you to $230,079.00, even though assessments against owners of similar lands have not been reduced, and to the fact that both the Chairman of your Board and your regular attorney are in the employ of Mr. Mitchell."
It appears by the record that the Tax Assessor, at the January, 1951, meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, presented the tax roll for Franklin County for the year 1950, but the valuations appearing therein as to the lands owned by A.S. Mitchell, Land and Shuler were not valuated for taxation purposes thereon in the amounts or figures as ordered by the Equalization Board, but in such sum or sums as expressed the views of the Honorable Fred A. Hoffman, Tax Assessor. Section 193.29, F.S.A., provides, in part, that the County Tax Assessor in each county shall, immediately after the assessment of the county has been reviewed and equalized by the County Commissioners-the Board shall endorse on the certificate that the same has been approved and thereafter no assessment as made shall be changed by the County Commissioners.
An alternative writ of mandamus issued out of the Circuit Court of Franklin County on the petition of the land owners, supra, against the Honorable Fred A. Hoffman as Tax Assessor of Franklin County, Florida, which commanded the reduction of the assessed valuation for the year 1950 of each parcel of land assessed to A.S. Mitchell and C.C. Land and J.A. Shuler as fixed and determined by the Board of County Commissioners of Franklin County. A motion to quash was filed and on hearing was by the trial court denied. An answer was filed setting forth substantially the same legal grounds or reasons as appear in the letter, supra, from the Tax Assessor to the Board of County Commissioners. The trial Court, on motion for a peremptory writ of mandamus, notwithstanding the return or answer of the Tax Assessor, granted the same. The Honorable Fred A. Hoffman appealed.
Section 193.06, F.S.A., requires that "All the lands shall be assessed in the county * * * at their full cash value." Some of the authorities define the value of property as the amount it may be sold for in the market in the due course of trade. 51 Am.Jur. 649. Frequently it is a difficult question to arrive at the exact figure constituting the full cash value of real estate. In the case at bar it was the view of the Tax Assessor-appellant that the amounts paid for the properties by the owners were important elements to be considered in arriving at the full cash value of real estate for taxation purposes, and we find authority to sustain this view. The best informed men in the past have differed on the question of value of classes of property subject to taxation and sincerity of purpose may be ascribed to the honest views or conclusions reached by all, free of improper motives or bad faith.
It is argued that a fiduciary relation exists between some of the parties to this suit and for this reason a cloud of suspicion now hangs over the valuations for taxation as determined or fixed by some of the officials and for this reason our holding in Sanders v. Crapps, Fla., 45 So.2d 484, is not applicable. The Court below held that the contention was without merit. We have searched the record in light of this contention and it is our view that the Board of County Commissioners and the Tax Assessor are honest and sincere in their respective contentions as to the full cash value of the described property. Sanders v. Crapps is here controlling.
Affirmed.
TERRELL, Acting C.J., MATHEWS, J., and LEWIS, Associate Justice, concurring.